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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently